Chapter 5 (Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen)

Chapter 5 (Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen)
Chapter Information
Cover Characters	Qifrey
Volume	Volume 1
Pages	24
Date Released	JP: 22 Jan 2020
Chapter Guide
Previous	Chapter 4
Next	Chapter 6

Chapter Five of Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen.

Summary

A large school of Parasol Jelly have approached the Great Hall, so Qifrey uses water magic to gather them up and connect them to a nearby ocean current to send them far away. Alaira approaches and she and Qifrey talk about the jellies left behind, knowing he must have missed some on purpose. With her Stretcher Skiff, Alaira collected those remaining before they could sink into the mist basin, and Qifrey admits he had been looking for something to make for dinner.

When he takes those Jellies back to the Atelier, no one is thrilled to see them. Coco is terrified of them; Tetia and Agott are unenthused as people rarely eat them; and Richeh thinks they're the worst, remembering a time when one landed on her head. Even Olruggio hides when he sees them—hoping to avoid the work in preparing them. But having already seen him, Qifrey calls out to Olruggio and requests his help. Olruggio is in charge of the first step: dissolving the Parasol Jellies in a pot over heat. He explains to Coco that the only edible part is the meat inside the leg, but the body must be dissolved first in order to avoid the mild acid that leaks out of it. Coco is amazed by quickly they dissolve, but therein lies the real work: Olruggio explains that only so many Jellies can fit in a pot, and along with their singular leg, the body leaves behind an acidic brine that must be dumped. So it is a repeating cycle of boiling a few Jellies, fishing out the legs, dumping the brine into a container to deal with later, and then starting over again.

Coco leaves a grumbling Olruggio to see the next step with Qifrey: retrieving the meat. Using a pair of kitchen shears, Qifrey cuts through the leg's hard outer shell and then shakes the trimmed piece over a plate to release the meat. He lets Coco have a taste, who is hesitant at first and then quickly elated by how tasty it is. Her comments about how soft and fluffy the meat is spurs a new round of complaints from Olruggio and the other girls—who sit at the table with their own plate of legs and shears. While they all agree the meat is good, the small amount of it compared to the massive amount of work required to get it gives the room a grim air. Coco decides she should continue helping the others with the work and joins the table, while Qifrey gets started on his own dishes.

Combining Carapace Yam and diced Mountain Apple with cream and some of the Parasol Jelly meat, he scoops the mixture onto a small slice of bread and tops with another whole piece of Jelly meat to make the Parasol Jelly and Mountain Apple Sliders. His next dish is a Parasol Jelly Soup, using broth simmered with the leftover leg shells, then filtered and replaced with vegetables and Jelly meat cut into strips. It becomes a running joke that Tetia grows upset whenever Qifrey comes to the table to take a plate of the finished meat or shells to cook with, as she enjoys seeing the large pile they had built up. Olruggio and the girls are exhausted as they finally finish processing all of the Jellies and retrieving the meat, and rest on the floor as Qifrey works on his final dish. Using previously-prepared dough, he cuts it into strips then triangles and boils them to make Witch Hat Pasta. Meanwhile he also heats up leftover marinara sauce from presumably Chapter 1 (Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen) and stirs in some Parasol Jelly meat and cream. Finishing at the same time, he serves it up on plates with cheese and parsley and a few leg shells for decoration.

Everyone is thrilled to see the dinner, though Coco worries she can't eat it because it took so much work. Qifrey reassures her that the care poured into making the meal is the greatest spice, and that the best way to honor the ingredients is to eat while they're at their best. They all dig in, each complimenting a different aspect of each dish. Olruggio also comments that he would never go to this trouble if he were eating alone, but seeing the happy faces of the girls made it worth it. And then grumbles that Qifrey's grin meant he probably expected this all along. The joy is also short-lived as Olruggio brings up the final worst aspect of cooking Parasol Jelly: the cleanup. While the leg shells can simply be tossed, the waist-high jars filled with the acidic brine leftover from dissolving the Jellies cannot. Each jar must have a spell drawn on it to neutralize the acid, and then the remaining salty liquid must be dumped in the ocean. Qifrey asks if Olruggio will help him dump all the jars out at sea later, while Olruggio complains once again how much he hates cooking Parasol Jellies.

Meanwhile back at the Great Hall, Alaira finds a Parasol Jelly on the bridge and with magic helps it back into the ocean, and thinks about how she prefers looking at the Jellies rather than eating them as she finds them awfully cute.

Recipes

• Parasol Jelly and Mountain Apple Sliders

• Parasol Jelly Soup

• Witch Hat Pasta with Parasol Jelly and Tomato Cream Sauce

Characters by Appearance

• Qifrey
• Alaira
• Coco
• Tetia
• Agott
• Richeh
• Olruggio
• Brushbuddy

Gallery

• 

  A school of Parasol Jelly by the Great Hall

• 

  Alaira and her Stretcher Skiff full of Parasol Jellies

• 

  Olruggio explaining to Coco how to dissolve the Jellies in order to safely get their leg

• 

  After boiling the Jellies, cut the legs to get the meat

• 

  The meat to Parasol Jelly ratio

• 

  Everyone's exhausted after all that work

Chapter Notes

• This chapter has the first and only appearance of Alaira in the Kitchen spinoff, aside from a tiny cameo in Chapter 34 (Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen).